Pension Application of William Frazier S17966
Transcribed and annotated by C. Leon Harris
State of Virginia County of Campbell.
On this 10th day of September 1832 personally appeared in open court before the court of Campbell now sitting William Frazier a resident of the County of Campbell and State of Virginia aged 75 years who being first duly sworn according to law, doth, on his oath make the following declaration in order to obtain the benefit of the act of Congress passed June 7th 1832.
That he entered the service of the United States under the following named officers and served as herein stated.
He first entered the service of the United States in the month of June (he thinks about the first) in the year 1780 in a Militia Company commanded by Capt. Thomas Leftwich – Lieutenant Austin Leftwich [sic: Augustine Leftwich] Ensign not recollected he marched from New London in the County of Bedford [now Campbell] through the County of Pittsylv[ania] in Va. to Hillsborough in North Carolina where he joined the Regiment commanded by Col. [George] Stubblefield and the whole Va. Militia commanded by Gen. [Edward] Stevens after remaining some weeks at Hillsborough he marched South & joined the main army commanded by General [Horatio] Gates & near Camden [SC] was fought Gates’s celebrated defeat [16 Aug 1780] where he received two wounds in the head from musket balls There was a general rout of the company he was in & it was again collected together in Bedford County Va. & returned in service joined the main Southern army commanded by Gen’l Green [sic: Nathanael Greene] in the county of Guilford North Carolina & was discharged a few days before the battle of Guilford [Guilford Courthouse, 15 Mar 1781] after having served about two months and a half before Gates’s defeat and he thinks eight months after [see note below], & before the battle of Guilford making in this tour ten months & a half the service before the battle near Camden is proven by Gen’l Joel Leftwich who served it with him [as Sergeant; pension application S8830] he got a written discharge but have lost it. I was attached the last part of the tour to a company commanded by Capt James Buckly—
A short time afterwards though he cannot tell the precise time in the year 1781 he again entered the service of the United States in a company commanded by Joshua Stone the subaltern officers not recollected he marched from the County of Pittsylvania to Jamestown in Virginia where he joined the Regiment commanded by Col. Stubblefield the whole under the command of General [Robert] Lawson he was discharged at Jamestown a few weeks before the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown [19 Oct 1781] after having served a tour of four months — I received a written discharge but later lost it & there is no person living that I know of by whoom I can prove the last named tour he hereby relinquishes every claim whatever to a pension or annuity except the present and declares that his name is not on the Pension roll of the Agency of any State. Sworn and subscribed the day and year aforesaid.
(Signed) William [his X mark] Frazier
Where in what year were you born
I was born in the County of Albemarle in the State of Virginia and I think in the year 1757
Have you any record of your age and if so where is it.
I have no record of my age there never was any that came to my knowledge
Where were you living when called into service; where have you lived since the revolutionary War and where do you now live.
I was living in the County of Bedford when I first entered the service the second time I lived in the County of Pittsylvania have lived ever since in the County of Campbell Bedford first Campbell afterward taken from it [in 1862]
How were you called into service were you drafted did you volunteer or were you a substitute and if a substitute for whom answer.
the first tour I served was as a substitute for John Lynch who I understood was drafted the second tour I was drafted and served for my self State the names of some of the Regular Officers who were with the troops where you served such continental and militia Regiments as you can recollect and the general circumstances of you service I refer to my declaration for answer to this question I have there mentioned all the officers I recollect and all the general circumstances recollected by me.
[Certified by Joel Leftwich.]
NOTE: Eight months was an unusual term for militiamen. Many Virginian militiamen who fled at the Battle of Camden or were absent without leave from Hillsborough were sentenced to serve that term. See, for example, the pension application of George Woodard of Bedford County (W2506): “[P]rovisions became so scarce and and the suffering of the men for the want of provision so great, that he with the rest of the soldiers stationed at Hillsborough after remaining there near 2 months as aforesaid, grounded their arms and returned home, contrary to orders, in consequence of which they were returned for 8 months.”
http://revwarapps.org/s17966.pdf
